Bonding during sickness
by Ahai
Summary: Kotetsu comes home to bond with Kaede but he and Kaede gets a cold. And Kaede has some troubled feelings...


Staring out the window on the train deep in thoughts, Kotetsu couldn't wait to come home. He really wanted to relax, get away from work, seeing his mother, brother and of course his precious Kaede. Kotetsu and his daughter didn't have the best relationship and it was pretty rocky, Kotetsu always said something wrong and Kaede got angry. Of course, he couldn't blame her. He was rarely visiting home, he has barely seen her growing up and he always canceled his promises last minute How is a father suppose to show his love for his daughter when she is not the little girl she was when she used to live with him and her mother? But during this little vacation he now had, he was gonna do his best to bond and get a better relationship with Kaede.

"Excuse me,sir?"

Kotetsu snapped out of his thoughts. The ticket man was gathering the tickets from the passengers and he now came to Kotetsu.

"Do you have a ticket?" he asked.

"Yeah, hold on" Kotetsu checked his pockets.

The ticket man was wrinkling his nose while Kotetsu was searching for his ticket.

"Here you..."

The man sneezed loudly and towards Kotetsu.

"...go" Kotetsu handed him the ticket with an expression of disgust.

" Oh, sorry", he sniffed "Thank you" he said and continued collecting tickets.

" _Geez, has he heard of covering the mouth when sneezing?" _Kotetsu thought.

"I am home" Kotetsu said when he walked through the door. Finally he was home after hours of traveling. The house was quiet, probably because it was so late.

"_Guess I wont see Kaede until tomorrow" _Kotetsu though and walked into the house.

Inside the living room his mother and brother was inside, talking to each other.

"Hi, whats up?" Kotetsu said.

"Oh, Kotetsu you are home" His mother looked up at him.

" Yeah, I thought it was time to come home for a while" Kotetsu said.

" How long are you gonna stay?" Muramasa asked.

" A week or two I guess" Kotetsu shrugged cause he wasn't sure. No matter where he was the alarm could go, Bunny could always be in trouble being by himself. But Kotetsu had to remember there were many heroes in Sternbild and if they were in trouble and couldn't handle it there was always others with NEXT powers that could help them. Trying not to think about that he sat down with his mother and Muramasa and joined their previous conversation. Some few moments later they all went to bed.

After some hours sleep, Kotetsu woke up. He got up from the futon and went looking for Kaede.

" Mom, where is Kaede?" Kotetsu asked after he had looked everywhere inside the house and ended up near his mothers vegetable garden.

" Its 12 pm Kotetsu, shes at school" She said and sprayed water on the vegetables.

12 pm?! How could he have slept so late? Was it some kind of destiny that he couldn't see his daughter? He went back towards the room he was sleeping in, He wasn't feeling fell...

_Kaede pov_

Kaede couldn't concentrate. She was doing her best to try paying attention to what the teacher said but her head was killing her. Not only that, she used all her power to try not to cough because of her sore and tickling throat. And was it her or was the classroom terribly hot? At recess she went to the nurse. After checking the symptom and her temperature it was confirmed she was sick with fever.

Her uncle Muramasa came to pick her up in the middle of the school day.

" Kaede, are home already?", her grandma asked when Kaede came in the house.

" Yes, I don't feel so good", Kaede wiped sweat of her forehead.

Her grandma came towards her and felt her forehead, which was already all sweaty again.

"Oh, you are burning up, dear!" her grandma exclaimed.

"Must be some epidemic now" Muramasa mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Kaede asked.

It turns out that her father was sick too with the same symptoms like Kaede`s. So her grandma made a plan that Kaede and Kotetsu were going to sleep in the same room so no one else could get sick and so the epidemic didn't spread. After the futon was laid out for Kaede in the room, her grandma followed her in.

Inside Kotesu was asleep so Kaede went in as silent she could. The last thing she wanted was to talk with her dad. She imagined that once he woke up he would be all cuddly, speak to her like a baby and talk about things that weren't interesting. Her futon was on the right side of the room so that meant she was as far away from him as possible, since he was on the left side. She laid down and tried to sleep.

" Hi Kaede, sweetie" Kotetsu said with a weak voice. It appears that he has woken up.

" Dad, please don't talk to me, I wanna sleep" Kaede said and covered her face with the blanked.

At night Kaede was tossing and turning around and sweating. No, no! Please, don't leave me!

" No!" Kaede yelled and then she was awake in a sitting position. It was all just a dream, an awful dream.

Kaede was slowly breathing in and out so she could calm down. She looked at her dad to she if her yelling woke him up. It was pretty dark now so she couldn't see him but she heard he was asleep as he was breathing slowly with his stuffed nose. Kaede went out of the room so she could go to the kitchen and get some water. As she was walking towards the kitchen she looked around her surroundings. It was so peaceful and quiet at night, and the small sound the crickets were making was very soothing.

When she came in the kitchen she made herself a glass of water, sat down by the table and looked out the window. The moon was very bright tonight and so were the stars surrounding it. But there was one star that was shining more clear than the others. When Kaede noticed that star and looked at it, she started to think about her mom. She still misses her so much, and she misses living with her mom and her dad.

Shes been thinking about her mom and dad for awhile now and those thoughts made her dream that awful dream. She dreamt that she saw her mom die, her dad disappear, her uncle and then her grandma die. And then she was all alone with nothing or no one around her. Why did her mother go? Why couldn't she stay?

Although her mom died when she was pretty young, Kaede still had some memories, both good and bad. She remembered that she was home with her mom having a good time and when her dad came home he used his time to play with her and snuggle her. And also she often slept with her parents in their bed , feeling so loved.

But what Kaede remembered the most was when her mom died. It broke her heart and she had trouble understanding that she was gone and that she would never return. Before she moved in with her grandma, her dad took care of her as he had time off at work. He did a pretty good job and he did what he usually did but Kaede could see the sorrow in his eyes and that he was in pain.

Sometimes at night when Kaede woke up to go to the bathroom she could hear her father cry in his room. It was so sorrowful to listen to that sometimes Kaede ended up crying too. In the end her father had to work again and since his work was so busy she had to move in with her grandma. It was then Kaede felt that she lost her father too. And now after she felt like she lost her parents she feelt like she is going to loose the rest of her family too. Her uncle had a busy work too and her grandma was getting older so she could die anytime. After all those thoughts Kaede was on verge crying. She put the glass away and went back to the room.

Once she got inside and closed the door she crawled on the floor towards the futon so that she wouldn't trip on anything. She felt something soft so she knew that it was the futon but she also felt something harder and big. It was her dad, she has crawled to her dad. Kaede was about to go towards her own futon but she couldn't move, she didn't want to move.

After all those thoughts about how she lost her parents, she realized that one of them was here, right in front of her. She laid down next to her dad till it was like an inch between them. She then snuggled her head into his shoulder and started to cry. Kotetsu was groaning and slowly waking up because of Kaedes shaking and sobbing.

" Kaede!" Kotetsu immanently woke up completely at the sight of his baby crying "What is the matter?!"

" Please daddy, don't leave me!" Kaede trowed herself at his and hugged him tight.

" What are you talking about?" Kotetsu asked hugging her tight as well and rubbed her back.

After her crying calmed down Kaede told him about the dream and that she was really scared that she would end up all alone.

"Kaede..." Kotetsu began and stoked her hair slowly" I am so sorry, I didn't know you felt so lonely" Kaede didn't say anything, she just sniffed quiet into Kotetsu`s chest.

" But Kaede you haven't lost me and there is no chance that I will ever leave you"

" I know we talk to each other on the phone and all, but still it feel like you are never there" Kaede said and didnt move.

" I am here now and I will now do my best to come home more often" Kotetsu said.

" Really?" Kaede looked up at him with eyes shining like the stars outside.

" I mean it, nothing is more important than my little girl" Kotetsu gave her a soft kiss on top of her head.

" Can I sleep with you, dad?"

" Of course you can, sweetie" Kotetsu and Kaede laid back down and Kaede tightly snuggled up to her dad with an arm around her. For the rest of the night Kaede didn't dream anything and she felt very save being so close up to her dad, it almost felt like old times.

_Kotetsu pov_

As the days passed Kotetsu and Kaede was in their room talking to each other, playing games they felt up to do and they were spending a lot of time together when they weren't taking medicine and sleeping.

When both of them recovered one and a half week later, Kotetsu had to go back. His relationship with Kaede has gotten much better and he didn't want to go back now when he and Kaede weren't sick anymore.

" I promise I will come back soon" Kotetsu said to his mom, brother and daughter.

" Lets hope we don't get sick again when you come back" Kaede said.

Kotetsu laughed and gave Kaede a big hug.

As he got inside the train and the train went he waved at his family.

"_This time I promise I will come home more often, my sweet Kaede"_


End file.
